Once a SEAL by Anne Elizabeth

through this. They could get through this.
    Her heart leaped as her phone rang. Maybe Dan had found a minute to call her back after all!
    But it was Jimmy on the line—and he was crying.
    “What’s wrong? Where are you?” she asked.
    “I’m…in San Diego. At the h-h-hospital.”
    “Jimmy, slow down. What hospital? Are you hurt? You were supposed to fly out a week ago.” Panic clawed through her. She was the adult, though, and always had to be. Making her voice calm and firm, she hoped he would hear her stability and slow down his breathing before he had an asthma attack. When he didn’t, she said, “Come on, Jimmy, draw your air in slowly. Do it with me. That’s right. Now let it out slowly. Good, just breathe with me.” Aria walked him through it for several minutes, getting her teenage brother calm, and then she asked the question that was on the tip of her tongue through the entire phone call. “Jimmy, where is Uncle David?”
    Her brother took in a ragged breath. “He’s dead. Uncle David was killed in the crash.” The weeping began again as Aria put the cell phone on speaker and stared at it.
    A police officer came on the line. The details came out slowly. Instead of going back to Vermont so Jimmy could catch the first week of school, her uncle and brother had driven up the coast to visit her uncle’s friends. Today they were on their way back to San Diego. On Interstate 5, just past the exit for the Marine base, they’d been in a crash.
    Uncle David went through the windshield and was killed instantly. Her brother was completely unharmed but needed to be picked up from the hospital.
    She told the officer she would be there in twenty minutes.
    She sent Dan a quick text before she allowed herself to give in to the grief. Flashes of her parents’ death ripped her heart apart. But Jimmy needed her. “Get it together, Aria.”
    Swallowing the lump in her throat, she pushed her sorrow to the recesses of her brain as she made her way to the hospital. She knew delaying the grief would cost her later on, take a greater toll, but she told herself she needed to do it…for Jimmy. He must have felt so adrift. What would it be like to raise a teenager? She didn’t know. She had been away from home for five years. Regardless, she’d make it work, because family was what mattered.
    “All we have is each other.”
    As she entered the hospital, the smell of the antiseptic assaulted her nose. She coughed and then cleared her throat. Stopping at the water fountain, she took a quick sip.
    Police officers were waiting for her in the small ER lobby area. “I’m Aria McCullum.”
    “I’m Officer Kendrik and this is Officer Rosa. Thank you for coming so quickly.”
    “Where is my little brother?”
    The taller one, Officer Kendrik, said, “We’ll take you to him shortly. Only a couple of things. First I need to see your ID.”
    “Yes, of course.” She took her new military ID out of her wallet and presented it to them.
    “We’re very sorry for your loss. The doctor should be done checking your brother out by now. Let’s go find him.”
    He handed her a business card as they walked toward a double-locked door that said Doctors and Registered Patients Only. “Someone will be in touch…you know, for the arrangements you would like to have made for your uncle.”
    Oh, God! Aria’s stomach churned. Simultaneously, she put one hand on her stomach and the other on her head. She wanted to throw up or pass out. Her body was fighting both responses.
    “Mrs. McCullum, you look pale. Why don’t you sit down?” The police officer sat next to her. To his partner, he said, “Go get the brother. It’s time for them to go home.” He picked up a magazine and fanned her with it. “Do you want us to call someone for you?”
    “No, I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute.” Aria counted slowly in her head, using a yoga technique to get control of her breathing. When she heard the door open, she looked up and saw her